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PODCAST

The Shift with Sam Baker

The Shift is a podcast that aims to tell the truth about being a woman post-40, created and hosted by writer and broadcaster, Sam Baker. Did you ever wonder why you stop hearing so many women"s voices once they pass 40? That"s where The Shift comes in - a frank, funny, sometimes heartbreaking, always honest look at what it means to be a woman in midlife and beyond. Work, life, love, health, sex, money, identity, body image... What does it all mean when everything around you (and inside you...) is

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All Episodes

61:10

Jackie Kay on rediscovering yourself in your 50s -...

The Shift with Sam Baker ·

2026/10/06

My guest today has blazed a trail through the British poetry scene ever since her work was first published in 1991. Born in Edinburgh, Jackie Kay MBE was brought up in Glasgow by her adoptive parents, Helen and John Kay, of whom much more later.She has had countless poetry collections, short stories and novels published to acclaim, as well as her glorious memoir Red Dust Road which tells the story of meeting her birth parents. The winner of over 20 awards, Jackie is a professor of creative writing

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43:30

Marina Benjamin on the unseen, unsung, undone work of...

The Shift with Sam Baker ·

2026/09/29

I first encountered today’s guest, Marina Benjamin, when I was researching The Shift book and stumbled across her memoir, The Middlepause. An insightful look at what middle age means today, it was prompted by Marina’s own sudden menopause after a hysterectomy. The sense of dislocation she described was the first time I’d ever seen the way I felt put down in black and white.She followed it up with Insomnia (clue’s in the name) and has now completed her loose midlife trilogy with A Little Give a

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51:48

Zandra Rhodes: how a 'boring little girl' made a big...

The Shift with Sam Baker ·

2026/09/22

I can’t be cool about today’s guest, so I’m not even going to try. Ever since I started The Shift I have had a Wishlist and high up on it from day one was Dame Zandra Rhodes.Yes, that Zandra Rhodes. There can only be one after all. For over 50 years, Zandra has been a leading figure in the British fashion industry, renowned for her prints and her use of colour. Over the years she has dressed everyone from Princesses Diana to Freddie Mercury, Diana Ross and Debbie Harry, and collaborated with

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62:35

Louise O'Neill on her midlife dating odyssey - BONUS...

The Shift with Sam Baker ·

2026/09/19

You can be swimming along nicely and then all of a sudden everything you thought you had is gone.That’s what happened to today’s guest, the best-selling Irish novelist, Louise O’Neill. She was 38 and had just taken on a big mortgage with her partner of five years when he blindsided her by pulling the plug. In the wake of losing the future she thought she wanted, suddenly everything she’d achieved throughout her career lost its meaning. Known for her fearless feminist writing, Louise had

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49:59

Miranda July on the unexpected wildness of ageing -...

The Shift with Sam Baker ·

2026/09/15

It's two and a half years since I first interviewed Miranda July for this podcast and wow, what a change! Her novel All Fours became a must-read, got shortlisted for the Women's Prize and has been optioned for screen - a far cry from the moment she asked me, will you have my back? We did Miranda, we did! Here it is again...Every so often you get the chance to interview someone whose work has fascinated you for, well, forever. And today is one of those days. Miranda July is an artist, performer,

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56:38

Rachel Eliza Griffiths shares two great loves and two...

The Shift with Sam Baker ·

2026/09/08

My guest today is the writer and award-winning poet Rachel Eliza Griffiths.Eliza is a woman who has been through A LOT in a short space of time. In September 2020, on the day she married her second husband, the globally renowned novelist Salman Rushdie, her best friend of 17 years, her ‘chosen sister’ Kamila Aisha Moon, died. Then, eleven months later, in the midst of her grief, her husband was brutally attacked as he prepared to go on stage to give a talk. For a time his life hung in the

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60:17

Meera Syal: 'I am now a Triple Bad Bet – Old, Female...

The Shift with Sam Baker ·

2026/09/01

My guest this week is the actor, playwright, screenwriter, novelist and multi-award winner Dame Meera Syal.Most of us have those people we grow up alongside and it feels like Meera has always been a fixture in my life, ever since I first saw her in the 80s film, Sammi and Rosie Get Laid. She’s been writing, performing and breaking new ground ever since and now in her early 60s she still is. In the early 90s she wrote the brilliant film Bhaji on the Beach, co-wrote and starred in the utterly

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52:07

Tabitha Webb on being an older mum & the...

The Shift with Sam Baker ·

2026/08/25

My guest today is the fashion designer and entrepreneur turned novelist Tabitha Webb.What can I tell you about Tabitha - other than her life makes mine look extremely dull? She ran away from university, chased a hot surfer to America, was a roller blading extra in the movie Birdcage and got held up at gunpoint. Then, despairing of finding the bag she wanted, she decided to design her own and a fashion career was born. Tabitha Webb became a go to for celebrities in the noughties. And when I

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61:11

Charlotte Wood: 'I don't fear ageing, but I do fear...

The Shift with Sam Baker ·

2026/08/18

My guest today is the Australian writer and thinker, Charlotte Wood.Charlotte is the celebrated author of seven novels and three books of non-fiction. I first encountered her with her novel, The Natural Way of Things, which won the Stella Prize (the Australian equivalent of the Women’s Prize) in 2016. Then, my favourite, The Weekend, which follows three women in their 70s as they clear the house of their dead friend over the course of a weekend, became an international bestseller. She followed

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63:14

Helen Thorn on how to bounce back from life's...

The Shift with Sam Baker ·

2026/08/11

My guest today is the award-winning comedian and podcaster Helen Thorn. The co-creator of the comedy duo and hit podcast, Scummy Mummies, Helen travels the UK performing in a gold catsuit. Which might scream confidence to you, but her books tell a different story.She is also the bestselling author of Get Divorced, Be Happy and How To Face Big Change and Come Back Stronger, which harness her trademark hope, humour and honesty to look at what it takes to go from a broken mess living on booze fags

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59:44

Jennie Godfrey: 'midlife is a powerful place if you...

The Shift with Sam Baker ·

2026/08/04

My guest today is the bestselling novelist Jennie Godfrey. Jennie has experienced the kind of midlife turnaround most of us can only dream of.She started her career working in HR and rose to the top of her chosen industry working for a large corporation. Life was a whirlwind of high powered meetings, swanky job titles, frocks and heels - and boozing to release the pressure valve. Cue burn out - and drying out! In her mid 40s, in the midst of what she now knows was perimenopause, Jennie took

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59:13

Jane Green on being a walkaway wife & rebuilding your...

The Shift with Sam Baker ·

2026/07/28

Where do you turn when the identity you’ve clung to for decades slips away? That’s the position today’s guest, Jane Green, found herself in at 55. Her solution? She packed a case and ran away!Anyone who was a fan of women’s commercial fiction (aka chicklit, ugh) in the 90s and noughties will know Jane’s name. Along with Marian Keyes and Helen Fielding, she ruled the roost. She wrote 21 novels - the first of which, Jemima J, was right up there with Bridget Jones in the states. And for a while,

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48:04

Sarah Hiscox on self esteem, shame and overcoming...

The Shift with Sam Baker ·

2026/07/21

Hello and welcome to SEASON 22(!) of The Shift with Sam Baker podcast. That's 300 fascinating conversations with women in midlife and beyond, if you're new here and fancy diving in. (To think that when I started it back in 2020, I thought I'd only do six!)My guest today is Sarah Hiscox. Now a counsellor for NA and AA, amongst other things, the first three and a half decades of Sarah’s life were marked by turbulence and addiction. Sarah was just eight years old when she first experienced the

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66:04

Stacey Duguid on coming back from midlife collapse -...

The Shift with Sam Baker ·

2026/07/14

Ever since I wrote about Stacey Duguid's campaign to shine a light on women's midlife career crisis loads of you have messaged me to say, 'Get her on the podcast!' Well, I have news for you - Stacey has been on the podcast! She first shared her midlife experience with me in September 2023, but now she's made it her mission to life the lid on the secret midlife career shame so many of us are suffering it felt like the right time to revisit our conversation. This is not about the unfolding career

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55:57

Clare Grogan: Back on the road and better than ever...

The Shift with Sam Baker ·

2026/07/07

This episode first aired in the summer of 2022. I'm replaying it now because Altered Images are going back on the road this autumn, touring their iconic album, Happy Birthday, 45 years (45!!!) after its release.... I can’t remember the first time I met my friend Clare Grogan. But like many Gen-Xers, I remember the first time I saw her in the cult movie Gregory’s Girl, and then, later the same year, on Top of the Pops with Altered Images, performing the band’s top 10 hits Happy Birthday and I

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58:32

Sabrina Pace-Humphreys: how running saved me from...

The Shift with Sam Baker ·

2026/06/30

This episode first aired June 2022... This week’s guest will make you wonder what you do with your time! Sabrina Pace-Humphreys is an award-winning business woman, a social justice activist, an ultra-runner, a mother of four and grandmother of three. (And as if that wasn't enough, right now, as of June 19th 2022, she's running 268 miles along The Spine of the UK!) Not bad going for 44. But it is none of those things that led her to write her memoir, Black Sheep - a story of growing up Black, on

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56:46

Dawn O'Porter - on ageing, Botox, self-worth &...

The Shift with Sam Baker ·

2026/06/23

This episode first aired in autumn 2022. I'm replaying it now because Dawn's new memoir, Hungry Eyes, borne of her love of food (and her Celebrity Masterchef almost triumph!) is out now... My guest today has packed a helluva lot into her 43 years. Dawn O’Porter started her career in TV production, before finding her way in front of the camera to host a series of attention-grabbing documentaries on everything from polygamy to Dirty Dancing. By the time she hit her 30s, like many women, Dawn was

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67:25

Lyse Doucet: What I learnt from 40 years on the...

The Shift with Sam Baker ·

2026/06/16

This episode first aired last autumn, but I'm replaying it now because last week Lyse won The Women's Prize for Non-Fiction for her remarkable people's history of Afghanistan, The Finest Hotel in Kabul...My guest today is the BBC’s Chief International Correspondent, Lyse Doucet. Since starting work at the corporation almost forty years ago, Lyse has covered all the major wars in the Middle East, reporting from Afghanistan Iraq Iran Jordan Israel Pakistan Egypt Libya and most recently Gaza. And

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61:41

Liz Earle: 'Much of what we've been told about ageing...

The Shift with Sam Baker ·

2026/06/09

My guest today is the woman who put Cleanse & Polish cleanser and muslin cloths in bathroom cabinets all over the country, Liz Earle. Back in the 1980s, Liz started her career as a beauty editor, before going on to found a skincare empire that started with the aforementioned Cleanse & Polish - and grew beyond her wildest expectations. In her own words, she then spent 15 years ‘travelling the world selling face cream’. Then a period of intense personal upheaval in her 40s led to a total

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62:58

Dr Kate Lister: Most women could benefit from...

The Shift with Sam Baker ·

2026/06/02

My guest this week is a historian columnist television presenter and vocal advocate for better sex for women!I first encountered Dr Kate Lister when I stumbled across her brilliant instagram account @whoresofyore, along with half a million others. In a world where even back in the late 20-teens where we thought the work was, if not done, then at least going in the right direction - laughs hollowly - it was still radical for someone to stand up and say that women demanding better sex didn’t

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